^Nice to see it get the attention it deserves. Though Dinosaur (my personal favorite ride at WDW) is still largely ignored (I know I know IJA and all). Between that, Everest, Safaris, and now Avatar, it might seriously become my favorite park soon.

Wow, the AK trip report pictures are all wallpaper worthy! Great report overall!

I have the rumblies, the rumblies that only AIRTIME can satisfy. Top Steel: Maverick [Cedar Point] Top Wood:El Toro [Six Flags Great Adventure] Coaster Count:74My username is Zergei on the NLE Forum (to be NLC someday...)Proud member of the Cult of Skank Mountain, where the airtime is to die for.

Die-hard german theme park enthusiasts visiting Florida tend to do the “full-circle”, which mean 8 parks in 8 to 10 days. Just doing the rides will keep you pretty busy, if not totally exhausted. But concentrating just on rides would not do justice to all the amazing things, the parks have to offer. There is great food, shows, nighttime entertainment and … parades.

If you grew up in the part of Germany I was born in, you grew up with parades. As the whole world knows, Germans have no sense of humor. But we make up for that on three days in February we call “Karneval”. That time we celebrate with parades featuring large floats, Marschmusik (oh yes, all Germans love Marschmusik) and lots and lots and lots of booze (to fight the cold). Oh, and we throw hard candy (“Kamelle”) at the kids.

So on my first visits to Orlando I always avoided the Parade in the Magic Kingdom. Little did I know how much fun it is. By now parades are a must on any trip. Today however, most of the parades have been shut down. They are not doing the Safari parade in Animal Kingdom anymore, the Hollywood Studios Parade is gone and there is no nighttime parade in the Magic Kingdom right now. But the "Festival of Fantasy” parade in the Magic Kingdom makes up for that, as it features an incredible cast of Disney Characters, a great soundtrack (maybe apart from the “Little Night Music” segment) and a fire breathing dragon. You have to arrive early to get a decent spot though, but that’s not too bad, as you do not have to wait in the freezing cold squeezed between drunk people listening to Marschmusik

This has been the Safari parade in Animal Kingdom

Goofy and the gang were part of the line up

Minnie - safari style

Mickey - safari style

The Pixar parade in Hollywood Studios

I am a little bit sad that they are not doing it anymore

It's Mrs. Incredible

And Mr. Incredible. That's incredible

Mr. Fredricksen from Up!

And Buzz Lightyear. Did you know they call him "Buzz l'Éclair" in France?

Colorful dressed dancers

It's a bug's life.

And Sully from Monsters Inc.

That's something I really miss: the Main Street Electrical Parade

So many lights, so ... bizarre ... music

It's Tinkerbell

And princesses

Pete with Pete's dragon

The german name of the movie is "Elliot, das Schmunzelmonster"

Finally! Marschmusik!

When it's parade time, it's packed!

Peter Pan and Wendy

Merida

I think I have a thing for Tinkerbell

And it's Mickey again

Time for some mermaids

Again: Super colorful costumes

And blue sky. No snow. No hail. No rain. No drunken Germans. No Marschmusik.

The parks at Walt Disney World aren’t “your average theme parks” and Ecpot makes no difference. When you have not been to the park before, a glance at the map is sure to give you a “WTF?!?” moment: no roller coasters, no “standard” attractions, very few Disney Characters. Nevertheless I know a lot of people who call Epcot their favorite.

It’s always super fun to visit the park with first timers, as the selection of attractions does not look like it could keep you busy for a whole day until IllumiNations starts in the evening. And when your aching feet carry you back to your car after that spectacular fireworks show, you always ask yourself: “What on earth did I do for the last 12 hours?” It’s also fun to have that “pre Ellen conversation”: “Do you need to go to the bathroom? We’ll be doing a dark ride” – “No thanks, I think I’ll go afterwards” – “It’s a 36 minutes dark ride. Plus pre show.”

Mission: Space is one of the most immersive attractions I know. And Test Track is super fun and super unique. Soarin’ is the proof that you can take a rather old idea and make a state of the art ride out of it. And floating backwards away from Elsa singing “Let it go” in the new Frozen dark ride gives me goosebumps every time.

And then, there is World Showcase Lagoon. As an European I have to admit, that this part of the park gives you a quite good first impression of Italy, England, France and of course Germany. Having Cast Members from those countries adds to the authenticity. Yes, it’s stereotypical. No, we do not wear Lederhosen all day. But: the Biergarten restaurant looks exactly like some of the Saturday evening shows running on federal German television (of course produced by tax Euros).

There are only two things I would like to correct: Toblerone chocolate is swiss, not German. And while we certainly have Christmas trees we do not hang cucumbers on them. That’s ridiculous.

Mickey Mouse welcomes you to Epcot

This is the iconic Spaceship Earth at the entrance of the park

Visitors that only know Europa Park always search for the rollercoaster inside

But there is none. Just Micheangelo painting the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel

Gutenberg inventing the movable type

And - more important - a hot girl in boots

This is Test Track, one of my favorites

It's like Autobahn without traffic jam.

And you can buy a car after you ride.

Mission:Space is one of my favorite attractions

It's basically a centrifuge but so much more ...

The American Adventure

A grand scale animatronic show

Journey into Imagination with Figment

Ellen's Energy Adventure

Elsa let's it go

Fat german visitor with ugly shirt vs. soft friendly robot.

During the Flower and Garden Festival the park is filled with topiaries

Everyone who thinks that german is a nice language should consider that in germany we call those "Formschnittbüsche"

Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade, wow that's a blast from the not so recent past. That was a fun parade but it was also kind of a nightmare, the paths in AK were way to small to accommodate a parade so it was always a huge cluster, but still fun parade.

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